BY the fact of God having willed to unite human nature to Himself in unity of
person, it is plainly shown to men that man can be intellectually united with God
and see Him with an immediate vision. It was therefore very fitting for God to assume
human nature, thereby to lift up man’s hope to happiness. Hence since the Incarnation
men have begun to aspire more after happiness, as Christ Himself says: I have
come that they may have life and have it more abundantly (John
x, 10).

2. Although in certain respects man is inferior to some other creatures, and
in some respects is likened to the very lowest, yet in respect of the end for which
he is created nothing is higher than man but God alone: for in God alone does the
perfect happiness of man consist. This dignity of man, requiring to find happiness
in the immediate vision of God, is most aptly shown by God’s immediate assumption
of human nature. The Incarnation
375has borne this fruit, visible to all eyes, that
a considerable portion of mankind has abandoned the worship of creatures, trampled
under foot the pleasures of the flesh, and devoted itself to the worship of God
alone, in whom alone it expects the perfect making of its happiness, according to
the admonition of the Apostle: Seek the things that are above (Col.
iii, 1).

3. Since the perfect happiness of man lies in a knowledge of God beyond the natural
capacity of any created intelligence (B. III, Chap. LII),
there was wanted for man in this life a sort of foretaste of this knowledge to guide
him to the fulness of it; and that foretaste is by faith (B. III, Chapp.
XL, CLIII). But this knowledge of faith,
whereby a man is guided to his last end, ought to be of the highest certitude: to
which perfect certitude man needed to be instructed by God Himself made man. So
it is said: No man hath seen God ever: the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom
of the Father, he hath told us (John i, 18):
For this I was born, and for this I came into the world to give testimony to
the truth (John xviii, 37). Thus we
see that since the Incarnation of Christ men have been instructed more evidently
and surely in the knowledge of God, according to the text: The earth is filled
with the knowledge of the Lord (Isai. xi, 9).

4. Since the perfect happiness of man consists in the enjoyment of God, it was
requisite for man’s heart to be disposed to desire this enjoyment. But the desire
of enjoying anything springs from the love of it. Therefore it was requisite for
man, making his way to perfect happiness, to be induced to love God. Now nothing
induces us to love any one so much as the experience of his love for us. Nor could
God’s love for man have been more effectually demonstrated to man than by God’s
willing to be united with man in unity of person: for this is just the property
of love, to unite the lover with the loved.

5. Friendship resting on a certain equality, persons very unequal cannot be conjoined
in friendship. To promote familiar friendship then between man and God, it was expedient
that God should become man, “that while we know God in visible form, we may thereby
be borne on to the love of His invisible perfections ” (Mass of Christmas Day).

6. For the strengthening of man in virtue it was requisite that he should receive
doctrine and examples of virtue from God made man, since of mere men even the holiest
are found at fault sometimes. I have given you an example, that as I have done
so ye also do (John xiii, 15).

8. The tradition of the Church teaches us that the whole human race has been
infected by sin. And it is part of the order of divine justice that sin should not
be forgiven without satisfaction. But no mere man was able to satisfy for the sin
of all mankind, since every mere man is something less than the whole multitude
of mankind. For the deliverance then of mankind from their common sin, it was requisite
for one to make satisfaction, who was at once man, so that satisfaction should be
expected of him, and something above man, so that his merit should be sufficient
to satisfy for the sin of the whole human race. Now in the order of happiness there
is nothing greater than man but God alone: for though the angels are higher in condition
of nature, they are not higher in respect to their final end, because they are made
happy with the same happiness as man.946946Man in his final state is to be as blissful
and glorious as an angel. There is equality between angels and saints in heaven,
ἰσάγγελοι γάρ εἰσι (Luke
xx, 36). — The ‘need’ of the Incarnation, spoken of throughout this
chapter, is a necessity of consequence only. The Incarnation was a boon to man;
and ‘needful’ as the central part of a divine dispensation, which however in itself
was not an absolute necessity (Cf. B. II, Chap. XXVIII). It was needful
376therefore for man’s attainment of happiness that God should become
man, to take away the sin of the world (John i, 29:
Rom. iv, 25:
v, 18: Heb. ix, 28).

946Man in his final state is to be as blissful
and glorious as an angel. There is equality between angels and saints in heaven,
ἰσάγγελοι γάρ εἰσι (Luke
xx, 36). — The ‘need’ of the Incarnation, spoken of throughout this
chapter, is a necessity of consequence only. The Incarnation was a boon to man;
and ‘needful’ as the central part of a divine dispensation, which however in itself
was not an absolute necessity (Cf. B. II, Chap. XXVIII).